Research
40% of Older Workers and Their Spouses Will Experience Downward Mobility
Inadequate retirement accounts will cause 8.5 million middle-class older workers and their spouses to be downwardly mobile, falling into poverty or near poverty in their old age.
ReLab's study of retirement wealth inequality between 1992 and 2010 finds that the retirement system is failing everyone, with those at the bottom suffering the most. Our corresponding policy note, "Extreme Inequality is Persistent, Even Among Those With Similar Earnings," discusses policies to address the inequalities baked into our system.
One-third of older workers have neither retirement savings through a 401(k) or IRA, nor a defined benefit (DB) pension.
Workers in low-wage households are more likely to experience economic shocks and to withdraw from their retirement accounts, exacerbating pre-existing inequalities in the retirement savings system.
The rates of elder poverty among widows and single women are higher than among couples and men.
ReLab's new report, "Disparities & Erosion in New York’s Workplace Retirement Coverage," documents two trends in retirement plan coverage: 1) retirement plan coverage is declining for all New Yorkers, and 2) disparities in coverage continue to exist based on race, education and income.
Using data from the Survey for Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study investigates the relationship between withdrawals from 401(k) and IRA accounts and household level economic shocks such as job-loss, job change, divorce, and the onset of poor health.
Rather than being "self-financing," New York's Hudson Yards project cost the city $2.2 billion in costs, largely due to tax breaks provided by the city to incentivize development and standard development risks and costs.
Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), proposed in the 2018 book Rescuing Retirement, are universal individual accounts funded throughout a worker’s career by employer and employee contributions and a refundable tax credit. If GRAs were implemented in 2018,1.5 million seniors would be saved from poverty or near poverty by 2025. This increases to 3.6 million seniors by 2035 and 8.1 million seniors by 2045.
- If we do nothing to reform the current retirement system, the number of poor or near-poor people over the age of 62 will increase by 25% between 2018 and 2045, from 17.5 million to 21.8 million.
- If the GRA were implemented in 2018, 8.1 million seniors would be saved from old-age poverty or near poverty by the year 2045.
Author: Teresa Ghilarducci, Michael Papadopoulos, and Anthony Webb
Download PDF
About SCEPA
SCEPA works to focus the public economics debate on the role government can and should play in the real productive economy - that of business, management, and labor - to raise living standards, create economic security, and attain full employment.
